Principle of Utility
idea · 1 work · 2 mentions · 8 anchored passages
the principle of utility · Bentham's criterion · greatest happiness of the greatest number · greatest happiness principle · the doctrine of utility · utility
spoken of as
1 expressionThe principle of utility1 mention
Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England (English)
In these lectures we are concerned with the utilitarian dogma as an axiom not of morals but of legislation, and one may with confidence assert that the principle of utility is far more easily applicable to law than to morals, and this for at least two reasons:
in the texts
Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England
Bentham's doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the sole justifiable end of government.
The reformers of the day placed for the most part implicit faith in the dogma of laissez faire, and failed to perceive that there is in truth no necessary logical connection between it and that “greatest happiness principle,” which may, with equal sincerity, be adopted either by believers in individual freedom, or by the advocates of paternal government.
What is there, we ask, in the greatest happiness principle—a truism now accepted by conservatives no less than by democrats—that could disturb the equanimity of a shrewd man of the world well started on the path to high office?
The dogma is the celebrated principle of utility.